The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
Typically, drones are aircraft that do not have an on-board pilot and that are of limited autonomy. An unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. Its flight is controlled either autonomously by onboard computers or by remote control of a pilot on the ground or in another vehicle. This typical launch and recovery method of an unmanned aircraft is by function of an automatic system or an external operator on the ground.
In many instances, drones are used in numerous commercial and civil uses. Examples of the myriad, eclectic uses of drones, include: thermal or video camera imaging, to parcels delivery, farming, surveying of crops, acrobatic aerial footage in filmmaking, search and rescue operations, construction industry, inspecting power lines, dams, pipelines, counting wildlife, delivering medical supplies; to monitoring remote inaccessible regions, determining of illegal hunting by animal-rights advocates, livestock monitoring, weather imaging, all in real-time.
Often, electrically powered drones are limited in range and duration by the size and weight of the batteries which they carry. Batteries can make up a substantial percentage of the payload weight. Consequently, there is an inherent tradeoff between duration and useful payload. Because of these constraints, the flight times of electrically powered drones are typically limited to less than one hour. Additionally, the distance traveled from a base location is limited.
It is known that ordering a product over the Internet or through a mail order catalog is an effective technique for efficient purchases. However, shipping and receiving the product is often slow and sometimes, the product does not arrive. The coordination between the distributor and the recipient is not always optimal either. Experimental efforts at delivering the product by drones has been problematic, since the docking by the drone, and the loading/unloading of packages is slow and imperfect. For example, the docking station is not in communication with the drone. Or, the drone or packages are not visible once inside the docking station. The safety of the packages inside the docking station is also an issue.
Even though the above drone docking systems address some of the needs of the market, an unmanned aerial vehicle UAV that is in perpetual communication with a network of docks that are automated and controlled by logistical software is needed for delivering and picking up packages, and also for performing surveillance at extended ranges.